Thu, 3/11/10
Everglades National Park: Cloudy this morning and very humid. There’s a front coming through and we’re supposed to get a lot of rain in the next two days. Showered and had some breakfast. Filled the water tank. Then headed down to Flamingo, stopping at Pa-Hay-Okee (grassy river) and Mahogany Hammock. This hammock has got to be one of our favorite places in the Everglades. It’s a lush ecosystem of old growth mahogany trees, a variety of palms and other lush sub-tropical vegetation. And, like last year, there were two barred owl chicks in one of the mahogany trees. Two little bundles of fluffy feathers and big eyes. At Flamingo we had lunch at the marina store and checked out the campground there. They’re in the process of installing electric at the RV loop. Flamingo is right on Florida Bay, whereas Long Pine Key where we stay is in the Pinelands, which is a large slash pine forest with palmettos and a plethora of other sub-tropical vegetation—all of this surrounded by saw grass prairie, little lakes and sloughs. We like it better here. Coming back, we stopped at a little pineland trail where we saw a tree snail a couple of years ago. Each hammock has its own variety of tree snails. I thought they were kind of rare, but we saw about 10 on this little hike. Each hammock has its own specific color variation and back in the day collectors would collect some from a hammock and then burn down the hammock so no one else could get any—which would make their collection more valuable. Pretty harsh I’d say. Back home and sat outside reading for a while. Sandwiches for dinner. 83 today and pretty windy.
Everglades National Park: Cloudy this morning and very humid. There’s a front coming through and we’re supposed to get a lot of rain in the next two days. Showered and had some breakfast. Filled the water tank. Then headed down to Flamingo, stopping at Pa-Hay-Okee (grassy river) and Mahogany Hammock. This hammock has got to be one of our favorite places in the Everglades. It’s a lush ecosystem of old growth mahogany trees, a variety of palms and other lush sub-tropical vegetation. And, like last year, there were two barred owl chicks in one of the mahogany trees. Two little bundles of fluffy feathers and big eyes. At Flamingo we had lunch at the marina store and checked out the campground there. They’re in the process of installing electric at the RV loop. Flamingo is right on Florida Bay, whereas Long Pine Key where we stay is in the Pinelands, which is a large slash pine forest with palmettos and a plethora of other sub-tropical vegetation—all of this surrounded by saw grass prairie, little lakes and sloughs. We like it better here. Coming back, we stopped at a little pineland trail where we saw a tree snail a couple of years ago. Each hammock has its own variety of tree snails. I thought they were kind of rare, but we saw about 10 on this little hike. Each hammock has its own specific color variation and back in the day collectors would collect some from a hammock and then burn down the hammock so no one else could get any—which would make their collection more valuable. Pretty harsh I’d say. Back home and sat outside reading for a while. Sandwiches for dinner. 83 today and pretty windy.
Tree snail--pineland trail
Orchid (I think) in the saw grass
While admiring this magnificant mahogany tree, I heard a noise and looked up--and this guy was looking back at me.
Curious ball of fluff
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